Archives for February 2015

It’s finally race day, y’all! I signed up to run the Disney World Princess Half Marathon in July and today is the day! I’ll be posting pics on my instagram account, but won’t be blogging about our trip until after we return.

These are the shoes I’m wearing for the half marathon this morning. Can you see the verse written on the tongues?

Isaiah 40:31

But those who hope in the Lordwill renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.

I will definitely be praying this verse as I run today.

And if you’re following along with me learning the ABC Scriptures, here is the verse for G:

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We have been snowed in for most of the week as the winter storm Octavia hit Kentucky. The local weathermen hyped this storm up so much that everyone in the state flocked to the nearest grocery before it hit and bought enough food to survive until Spring! Kentucky rarely gets more than a couple inches of snow and when we do, the ENTIRE state shuts down… literally! Schools, restaurants, banks, even the local courthouse has been closed all week. The snow did not disappoint and we ended up with about 13″ in our yard. Wow! Our driveway is a tenth of a mile long and it would’ve taken Jake ALL week to scrape it with a shovel. Thankfully, we have the most amazing neighbors. You can’t imagine the surprise and joy we felt when we saw our neighbor plowing our driveway in his big John Deere tractor. Luke and I watched through the window and it was the highlight of his week!

We waited until the sun came out on Tuesday to get out and play. Luke insisted that we take his trucks out to play in the snow. There are currently 5 trucks that are MIA and buried in the frozen tundra that is our back yard. We’re hoping to see them sometime soon, but with the looks of the long range forecast, it isn’t looking hopeful.

I was somewhat thankful that we were stuck inside all week because it allowed me to finally sew a few things for our trip to Disney this weekend. On Monday, I finished my Snow White running costume and on Tuesday I made the kids an outfit each to wear to the Magic Kingdom. Every time I sew an outfit with ruffles, I swear that I’ll never do it again… yet here is another ruffled frock! They are just so stinkin’ cute, I can’t quit making them even though they give me fits!

We are currently sorting out flights and travel plans because there is another winter storm hitting this weekend right when we are supposed to fly to Disney. I’m blaming all of this on Elsa! I will certainly let her know how disgusted Kentuckians are with this eternal winter when we meet her on Sunday and I better get an apology. Hah! I’ll be posting the Sunday Scripture and will have a full wrap up of our trip when we return! Until then, stay warm and safe, Kentucky friends!

Follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19

source: www.year27.com

Well, as I mentioned on Wednesday our little family has been on the go this week! We had quite a bit of downtime in January and now we are entering our “travel phase” of the off-season. We don’t get to travel much during the season, so we have to cram all of our travel into a two month span. I sometimes get overwhelmed with all of the planning, packing, calling, list making and organizing that comes with our trips, but I was reminded this week by a post by Lysa Terkeurst: I am managing blessings. Isn’t that so true? While I am a little overwhelmed with my lengthy to do list and quick turn around between trips and some days I feel like our house is more of a landing pad than our home, I wouldn’t change a bit of it. Everything that is overwhelming me right now is a blessing.

We started off our week with a long weekend trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to celebrate my parents turning 60. Their birthdays are a week apart in November, but this was the first chance that our whole family could get away to celebrate. The weather was just glorious – in the 60’s and sunny for the entire trip! We hiked, went snow tubing, rode go-karts, ate, shopped and laughed a lot. My parents are amazing and help us out SO much so we were so glad we got to celebrate their special days (even if it was three months late).

The girls (minus Lucy) hiking in Gatlinburg in short sleeves in February… I’ll take it!

Happy 60th Birthday to the two “Big Kids”!

My parents may have turned 60 but they still know how to have fun – especially when the grandbabies are involved!

On Tuesday, we had a Valentine’s Party at our house. Luke is a preschool drop out so I wanted him to get in on all the V-day fun too! Lyla had her 6 month check up Tuesday as well. She is a big, healthy girl! We delayed her shots until tomorrow because we were traveling. I am NOT looking forward to them. I know the whole vaccine debate is strong right now… we made a decision to vaccinate before Luke was born and we are sticking with it!

If you’ve seen my 30 in 30 list, you know that I hope to break ground on our new home soon. This house will be our “forever home” and will be built on a farm we bought last year. The land has been in the Tamme family since 1910 and we could not be more excited to carry on the tradition. Nearly two years ago we fell in love with a picture of a house online and after a little research, we found the architect that built the home. We had a few chats with the architect, Peter Archer, and soon after we knew he was the right person to design our forever home. We knew we were only going to build once and we want to make sure everything is just how we want it. I had NO idea that building a house was such an intense and time consuming job! Wow! But, again, while it can be somewhat stressful, its just managing blessings!

Our house is going to be in the style of an old Pennsylvania stone farm house and since we had never really seen one in person, we decided that we should probably see one with our own eyes before we break ground. So, last week we made the decision to make a last minute visit to West Chester, Pennsylvania to meet with Peter and his staff and see some of the homes that share similar characteristics to our future home. We are SO glad we went! We had NO clue how many different types of stone there are… can you say overwhelmed? We spent the day looking at homes and making revisions to our blueprints. It was a great, but long day!

Peter and Jacob spent a LOT of time talking about proportions and lines on the homes. I think we wore Peter out with all of our questions, comments, critiques and ponderings. Hah! Jacob definitely wants to know all the details and I just kept saying… “Let’s build that one! I love it!” Hah! Brains vs. Emotion!

At the end of our quick 48 hour trip, we came home with lots of ideas, a new excitement for our home and a half ton of stone in the back of our pick-up truck. I had no idea so few stones could weigh SO much!

So, as you know, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Since we had been traveling, we didn’t really do gifts for each other, but we did get the kids a gift each. However, if we did get gifts, the picture below would be our wish list!

Jacob is in desperate need of new sunglasses since he left his in Denver. Luke is getting a new movie to watch on our flight to Orlando on Saturday and The 101 Dalmations was just released from the Disney vault, so it was a natural choice for him. Lyla got a Bennet’s Bonnet from Beaufort Bonnets. It is sold out now, but all the proceeds from them went to a sweet little girl who has cancer. As for my wish list – how perfect is this sweatshirt for me? I say “Bless your heart” ALL the time and would love to wear this around. And, since it’s my blog, I can put two items on my wish list – I would LOVE to have a Dyson Slim so I can get rid of the mountain of crumbs that live under my kitchen table.

What did you get for Valentine’s Day or what did you wish you had gotten?

So… I’ve been a little MIA lately on the blog, but I’ve been getting lots of family time in and right now that is what is most important to me. We took a long weekend trip to Gatlinburg with my whole family to celebrate my parents turning 60 and we are leaving on another trip very soon. Needless to say, time to blog has been at a minimum this week. However, I wanted to make sure I posted the “E” verse for the week if you are following along with the ABC scriptures.

Teachers encourage their students, coaches encourage their players, and parents encourage their children, but I often forget that adults need encouragement too. I know I love to be on the receiving end of encouragement – sometimes just knowing that someone else in this world thinks that I “can” is what I need to keep pushing on. Whether its finishing a race, beating cancer or just being a mom and getting through the day, sometimes we just need encouragement from others to keep going. So, encourage someone TODAY!

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Jake and I just arrived home from a short vacay to Las Vegas and I’m happy to cross #10 off my 30 in 30 list. Only 28 left to complete!

This was our first trip with just the two of us in nearly three years and we were ready for some much needed rest and relaxation. Vegas isn’t exactly known for relaxation, but neither of us had been so we wanted to visit. We totally did the “non-Vegas” Vegas trip. Sorry in advance for the picture overload.

We were pretty excited to be on a flight together without kids! Jake often flies by himself, but this was my first flight sans kids in nearly FOUR years! I seriously didn’t know what to do with myself.

Can you tell I’m a mom? Here I am sporting my Medela breast pump backpack in the Vegas airport. It’s the hottest new accessory in 2015 in case you were wondering!

Since we had an early flight, we arrived at our hotel at 9am local time. We stayed at the Encore and it was amazing! We didn’t know what to expect, but WOW – these hotels do not mess around! They were all over the top. Plus, unbeknownst to us, it was the Chinese New Year, so there were lots of extra decorations as well!

Our room was fabulous at the Encore!

Our first stop was of course, breakfast! I put out a feeler for great places to eat on Instagram and had an overwhelming response for breakfast at Hash House A Go Go. It.was.incredible. We ate so much food that we could barely walk out of the restaurant.

Have you ever in your life seen such a pancake? I highly recommend the Brown Sugar Banana Pancake – it is knock your socks off good. Jake snapped that second picture mid food coma. I joked that I needed to walk to the New York, New York Hotel instead of taking a cab after eating all that food and Jake said he needed to walk to the actual city of New York. Hah! The service was great at Hash House A Go Go and they don’t have warming lamps so all of the food comes to your table as soon as it is plated. If you’re in Vegas, breakfast there is a must!

After breakfast, we walked the strip, took a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel, and walked through the lobbies and casinos at several other hotels. Then we headed back to the Encore for a long pre-Super Bowl nap.

Cab ride to the Super Bowl Party

One of the main reasons we went to Vegas was for Jake’s agent’s surprise 50th birthday party. We thought it was just going to be a small Super Bowl viewing party. We were SO wrong! Turns out his party was at the Bellagio’s Super Bowl party with 2,600 other people – whoa! We weren’t really all that interested in watching the game, because it’s kind of hard to watch when you wish you were playing in it instead, but being at this party made it so much fun. They had tons of food and goodies and lots of fun decorations!

Happy 50th, Bill!

I walked up to the bar and asked the bartender for a drink without alcohol and without soda. It was an open bar so he looked at me like I had three heads. He said, “Really? I’ll have to think on that one.” Then he whipped up the most delicious fruit punch full of fresh fruit! Yum! Everyone was asking about my drink and I think he made several more fruit punches as the night went on.

We didn’t really care who won the game, but we were happy to see Chris Matthews, a former Wildcat, play so well! It’s always fun to watch Kentucky boys play! I really just wanted the game to be entertaining – and I couldn’t have really ask for more! Crazy plays, a fight, and a down to the wire finish made it very entertaining. The half time show wasn’t too bad either; much better than Bruno Mars last year, in my opinion.

Jacob “with” Katy Perry at the Super Bowl Party!

Monday we had the total relaxation day. We literally didn’t leave the hotel. We ate brunch at The Buffet at the Wynn and then headed to the spa. I highly, highly recommend the Spa at The Encore. Most men aren’t too fond of spas, but once I convinced Jake to go with me a few years ago, he’s totally hooked. The relaxation areas were so cozy and the water room with cold plunges and waterfall showers were just amazing!

I was so worn out from the spa that I headed back to the room for a nap! Hah! Later that night, we had dinner at the SW Steakhouse and it was fabulous as well. The restaurant overlooks a huge manmade waterfall and a music and light show plays on the waterfall every 30 minutes.

Check out this random frog that sang “What a Wonderful World”! Totally unexpected at a nice restaurant, but very cute and entertaining!

We didn’t see a show, go shopping or visit all the hotels, but we certainly had a fun, relaxing trip! And I don’t think I’ve EVER been more excited to see two little humans in my whole life than when we arrived home last night!

The third item on my 30 in 30 list is to complete a 3 minute plank. I’ve seen lots of fitness challenge calendars on Pinterest, so I decided to create my own in order to check the plank off my list. As a mom of two and having two c-sections, core strength isn’t my strong suit. However, I’m determined to change that! Won’t you join me? We start today! Not familiar with the plank? Click here. I’ll be doing the basic plank each day, but you can switch it up with several different plank variations if you’d like.

I’ll be hanging this on my fridge and crossing off each day as I complete it. If you would like to do the same, click the link below for a printable version.

Gosh, this one is a hard one. Do everything without complaining or arguing? Everything – even washing a baby poop explosion out of a onesie? Yes, even that! God says everything and He means it. I used to be a chronic complainer until someone (Jacob) mentioned to me a few years ago that I was being very negative. At first, I was very offended and argued, yes argued, that he was wrong. However, when I started paying attention to how much I complained, I realized it really was quite often. My hair is frizzy. Our house feels cold. I don’t have anything to wear. And on and on and on I went, complaining all the day long. Now, I try to really capture my thoughts and although I may think a complaint in my head, I try not to let it seep out in to the world by coming out of my mouth. And as for arguing, Jacob and I often agree to disagree on things. This works well for us, because naturally, we both think we are right! Hah!